When all you have is a very small space with a lot in it already, the idea of putting anything else in there seems crazy. The last thing anyone wants to do is make a tiny room more cramped and cluttered with a bulky storage unit or a huge wardrobe but if you choose your racking correctly you might actually make the room feel more spacious.

Take a good look at the space and a good look at what’s in it. Often a small room feels full to bursting when too much of the floor space is taken up with boxes and bags and other bits and pieces, but the pile may only be two feet high. By taking that pile and arranging it in a storage cabinet the full height of the room, you can reduce the surface area it takes up and dramatically increase the available floor space.

These days it’s easy to buy racking in any configuration or size, tailored to fit the oddest shaped space. You can often choose the required length and height, and this will really help you get the best from the wall space in a small room, an attic, or the little hideaway under the stairs.

Proper racks can not only make the tiniest of rooms seem less cramped, it can also make all your bits and pieces easier to find and simpler to put away in their rightful places. If any of the rooms in your home seem too small, consider a new storage solution as a way to make it seem bigger.

The modern home needs to be able to perform on a variety of levels, for example, it needs to be a space that is both functional and well designed. Also, your home will need to cater for the needs of all its inhabitants, which can often be contrasting, particularly if you have children.

Luckily, there are lots of racking solutions for all sorts of applications, which means that even if you have a particular storage requirement by incorporating storage racks into the home you can greatly improve the quality of the space, and solve the problem of incorrectly stored goods.

Certain rooms have their particular demands in regards to space. For instance, whilst a living room area should be optimized to be lived in, it can still be home to a variety of “stuff.” Commonly, people store their DVD collections in their living rooms (which makes sense considering that it is home to the TV).

The obvious problem with doing this is that incorrectly stored DVDs can make a living space seem messy, and undermine the quality of the space. This issue is easily solved, however, with racking specifically designed to house DVDS and CDs.

Whilst DVDs are a common source of spatial issues, your own storage needs may be a little more idiosyncratic. For example, you enjoy a particular hobby or work from home. In either case your living space can be undermined by the build up of goods, and therefore racking is often the only way to regain the space in your home.

You have it in mind, the next project that will improve your home and give you more storage room. Whether it is shelving in the kitchen or garage storage, whatever your plans are, there are always tips and tricks to help make the job run smoother.

Before you start, check your tools are in good working order. Tidying out the tool box is not such a bad idea. Have a magnet handy to pick up dropped small screws and pins that might be otherwise very difficult to see, especially on a carpeted surface.

If taking measurements is going to be part of the job, keep a small pad of sticky back notes, write the measurement on the note then stick it to the matching section of wood or door frame.

Talking of measurements, if you think a room is square but you are not certain, think back to those good days at school. Rather than measuring along all four walls just measure the two at right angles to each other. Make a note of the figures, then measure from one corner to the other. If, for example, you took measurements of three feet and four feet along the adjacent walls, the diagonal line across the room should measure five feet. If it does not then you will need to mark some points in a square before carrying on.

If you have decided to put up tiling in the kitchen or the bathroom, never tile over wallpaper, always remove the paper first.

If you are a connoisseur of the grape, or just an enthusiastic amateur, the one thing you will need is a place to store your collection of wine. Storage racks for the wine are obviously essential and I will deal with them in a moment.

Those of you who already have a cellar need not concern yourself too much, but for those who do not, it is a major worry that the wine will not achieve its full potential and stay in perfect condition. For these goals to be realised, you will need to store the wine in cellar conditions identical to those in a real cellar.

These conditions are between 12 or 13 degrees Celsius without fluctuation, the humidity must be from 60% to 80%. There ideally, must be also be protection form light and vibration. A typical solution would be a wine cabinet or a walk in wine room complete with cellar conditioners.

Once you have decided where your fine wine collection is to be stored, you must now consider in what it should be held. A typical wine storage rack will made of wood or steel. The wood, oak or mahogany, for instance, would be treated with preservative, especially useful in cellars which have high humidity. If you opt for a wall-mounted storage rack, remember that a sturdy shelf will be needed to support it.

There will usually be standard sizes of racks available, able to hold between one and four dozen bottles and you may add to these as your collection grows.

Adding a roof rack to your car can give great versatility, whether it’s for extra luggage for the holiday or skis to be used on that long weekend break in Davos.

Small commercial vans will also benefit from a roof rack. Typically, the racks will be sold with all the mounting hardware needed. The rack would have heavy duty steel cross bars, necessary to support its load capacity of up to 75 kg. It will usually attach directly to the van’s roof mounted fixture points.  It also may have side rails to help secure the load. It is a good idea to make sure that the company selling such storage racks has a nationally recognised certification to demonstrate its products’ quality and dependability to the customer.

For the bike riders, there are two basic solutions to carrying the cycles over a distance. One of these solutions is the rear door mounted bicycle rack, this would be ideal for fixing to the car’s rear door or its tailgate. Typically, the rack will have bike frame grips and security attachment straps and a load capacity of as much as 45 kg. It will usually be able to carry as many as three bikes. However if your car has a spoiler or plastic trim attached to the top of the tailgate, these racks are unsuitable.

The other solution would be the roof mounted bike carrier. Usually, the carrier will have aluminium arms fixed on a steel base. The carrier would attach to a car’s roof bars. Whilst looking at roof racks, garage shelving is also a good idea.

Tomatoes need a regular drink of water otherwise they will develop split skins and blossom end rot. They are not on their own in this, since all the plants in your greenhouse will suffer if you skimp on keeping them watered on a daily basis. If you have the greenhouse some distance away from a water supply, then carrying watering cans to and from the greenhouse becomes a real chore and you might be tempted to skip a day or two.

So, once you have built your greenhouse, fitted it out with shelves, storage racks and all the other items you need, consider the potential problems with keeping your plants watered on a regular basis to ensure a good crop. If your greenhouse has a gutter, perhaps a water butt would be a possible solution. Although even without a gutter, the butt would still collect plenty of rainwater, something of which Britain is very rarely short. An old dustbin would be ideal for the job, especially if your local council has just provided you with a wheeled bin but refused to take away the old bin. Incidentally the bin could also be used to make compost from garden waste, leaves, grass cuttings and fruit and vegetable peelings. You will need to punch holes into the bin, since the air must get to the waste and encourage the decomposition process.

Other systems are also available, automatic water reservoirs will even allow you to take a few days off. The bag drip watering system is also quite popular.

Over 25% of accidents in workplaces each year are caused by incorrect manual handling techniques. Transporting, supporting heavy loads by hand, for example.

Fractures or strains, especially of the back, are not uncommon and most of these injuries could have been avoided with the use of correct techniques.

Other ways of minimising accidents include to redesign or automate the task to cut down the amount of manual handling needed, thorough risk assessment of the task and as far as possible reduce the risk of injury when manual handling is unavoidable. The in-house Health and Safety officer should carry out the risk assessment since they are going to be more familiar with the work being carried out there.

For instance, a job involving the stacking of shelves, the H & S officer would need to consider factors such as:

•    The height of the job and shelves or racking from the ground
•    The surface upon which the access equipment will rest. For example, the shelves or a partition wall
•    Whether the surface will be strong enough to take the weight of the equipment and the workers
•    The condition of the ground upon which the access equipment will rest
•    Lighting conditions in the work area

The job should then be carefully planned out. Heavier items should be stored lower down; other workers should be kept away from the area to avoid injuries from falling objects. Tools that will be used frequently should be kept close at hand and easily accessible. Frequent breaks, especially if working up a ladder, should be taken.

Around the early 1900s, the first battery powered industrial trucks were used. An American railway company introduced the platform trucks to move luggage at one of their train stations.

During World War I, partly due to manual labouring shortages caused by the war, Britain began to develop different kinds of equipment to handle materials.  A company in the USA, in 1917, started to develop and use powered tractors and powered lift tractors in their warehouses.

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s the industrial truck or forklift truck was developed, improved and its popularity grew in industry as businesses recognised the advantages of owning equipment that would speed up the movement of heavy materials around their warehouses and premises.
World War II brought about the increased use of forklift trucks to aid the war effort.  After the Second World War, warehouses were developing ever more efficient methods of storing their goods. These developments gave rise to a need for industrial trucks that were both more maneuverable and capable of reaching greater heights.

In 1956 a Japanese company introduced its first forklift truck and made its first sale of a forklift truck in America in 1967. Since that time, many different types of trucks have been developed and built in response to industry’s rising need for their versatility and have now become an indispensible tool in the modern workplace, whether it be a mail sorting centre, a warehouse or dockyard. These modern-day work horses have been a tremendous boon to industry around the world.